


The Gentleman's Survival Guide For The Zombie Apocalypse

by crocodilepatronus



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombies, M/M, Modern Era, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:59:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent- modern / zombie apocalypse AU. There is candlelit dinners and long walks through the woods and the slaughter of walking corpses that are trying to eat their brains. All very romantic, I'm sure you'll agree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I'm a tad worried about this fic and I'm sorry it's so, so, long. It's the longest one-shot I've ever written and probably ever will write and I feel a bit guilty for the length...

“Oh shit oh fuck oh fuck no.”

Some days nothing went your way.

Jimmy Kent was running. Running so hard his lungs felt like they were on fire, running so hard he barely felt his feet touch the ground. The freshly stolen whiskey was sloshing in his rucksack. It was rare to find any store that had yet to be ransacked even in the rural villages he’d been wandering through for the past few weeks. But there it had been- a goldmine. Heaven in the form of a liqeur store. Well, not exactly heaven. If it had been heaven it would’ve had food too because Jimmy was starting to run low on the vending machine snacks he’d stocked up on in the city formerly known as Leeds.

And if it had been heaven **_they_** wouldn’t have been there- ready to ambush him as soon as he’d filled his backpack. He’d taken one swig of something strong and then made a dash for it through the closest field (and there were many to choose from in the countryside- they were a relatively safe way to travel. better than through towns atleast).

Against his better judgement, Jimmy looked over his shoulder. The zombies were pinpricks in the distance. He slowed down, panting, and a triumphant grin broke across his face. _Dumb, ugly, **and** slow_ , he thought smugly…

The smile was wiped off his face when he turned his head back around and stopped in his tracks. He was halfway under a stone bridge and no more than a few feet in front of him were two undead. They looked up with wide, unblinking, white eyes and with a groan began to stumble towards him.

“Oh, shit…” _today is **really** not my day._

He backed away and turned on his heel once more to make a break for it only to have a zombie fall down from the top of the bridge in front of him with a wet thump as it’s body crumpled like a rag doll to the floor inches away from the toes of his sneakers. It raised itself up and dropped it’s loose hanging jaw, a low moan rumbling from the inside of its ribcage which was partially visible where the flesh of their side had begun to rot. Boney hands entwined around Jimmy’s neck.  

He jumped back with a leap and fell into the outstretched arms of the two zombies that had advanced behind him and cried out loudly as their combined weight pulled him to the ground.

Hands all over his body- groping fingers pulling at his clothes and a mouth came down, gnawing on the magazine he had duct taped around his forearm for protection. The pages wouldn’t last long. He struggled, his own fingernails scraping against the ground as he tried to free himself but they were too heavy.

 _I’m dying? I’m dying_ , he thought breathlessly, fresh adrenaline pouring through his body as he made a last attempt to kick himself free to no avail as tears of frustration bloomed in his eyes. _This is it_ …

It felt like he saw the burst of blood before he even heard the gun go off. He winced as bits of rotten brain sprayed next to his face and felt one of the weights on him go limp. The next shot made his ears ring as it hit the head of the zombie whose face was leaning into his from the left. Another deadweight pinning his arm. The last one on him had stumbled upright at the new intrusion and Jimmy watched in a dumbstruck daze as it’s head was lopped clean off with a well placed swing of an already thoroughly bloodstained cricket bat and the body fell forward, unmoving.

Reality kicked in and Jimmy shoved the now permanently dead corpses off him, swiping the blood off the side of his face with the sleeve of his sweatshirt and stumbling back away from them before he felt the barrel of a gun aimed at his forehead.

“You get bit?” said the man with the gun as he replaced the cricket bat into a rucksack on his back.

Jimmy swallowed, looking down at himself and examining his arms and legs, feeling his neck quickly. He shook his head.

“No… No I’m not bit.” he said with wonder, the relief and awe of not being zombified providing a full body feeling of lightness better than any drug.

He looked up at his rescuer for the first time and realized the handgun was still aimed at him.

“Turn around once. Can’t take any chances.”

Jimmy held his hands up and did as he was told, spinning once. No clothing rips, no blood.

“Satisfied?” he asked, starting to get annoyed that the man still had his gun aimed at him. He sighed, rolling his eyes, “If you’re gonna shoot me then just go ahead and do it- there are worse ways to go these days, y’know.” 

The man’s gun slowly lowered and he nodded, shoving it into a holster on the inside of the thick, black, Brando-style leather jacket he was wearing. He was older than Jimmy and he was a bit taller too. But handsome. Certainly handsome. Jet black hair falling onto his forehead partially obscured his light colored eyes and his red lips were surrounded by a prickly five o’clock shadow.

…and he was eye-ing up Jimmy with a hunger completely different than the zombies looked at him with.

Jimmy had felt that look on him many times, from men and women alike and even more so- or atelast more boldly- in the last two years since the infection had broken out. Gender didn’t seem to matter to anyone anymore- as long as someone had a pulse and all their limbs they were a sexual commodity. Jimmy, for his part, had been gay **_before_** the apocalypse and had been thoroughly disgusted to have a middle aged man in a wifebeater stroke the side of his face in a fallout shelter and whisper “I really like girls but you’re pretty enough that I’ll make an exception… Just a quick one and I’ll give you some bullets and two candy bars.” It was an enticing offer and Jimmy was sure that better men and women than he had fallen for it but he had instead opted to kick the man in the nuts, take the ammunition and **_six_** candy bars and make a run for it.

Jimmy thought he owed his survival purely to resourcefulness and boldfaced  self interest.

The man’s delightfully red mouth parted slightly as his eyes roamed over him.

 _Forget about it_ , Jimmy thought stiffly and turned to leave.

“O-oi- wait up, yeah?” the man’s voice shouted to him, echoing against the walls of the curved bridge. Jimmy walked faster but the other man sprinted to catch up with him.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Jimmy Kent.”

“I’m Thomas Barrow.”

Jimmy ignored him, looking straight ahead and continuing walking into the open field, aiming for the forest he could see on the horizon.

“Um- are you headed for the safe haven that’s supposed to be around here?” Thomas asked hesitantly, keeping up easily with Jimmy’s brisk strides to the latter’s annoyance.

Jimmy stopped, sighing as loudly as he could and turned to the other man, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Listen- thanks for saving me and all that and I’m sorry for all the inconvenience but I’m not looking for company, alright?” he snapped.

Thomas smiled- his lips forming an amicable curve but his eyes twinkling with a nearly sinister mischief.

“Oh, it’d take more than killing three zombies singlehandedly to ‘ _inconvenience_ ’ me.” he said smugly, “And I’m not exactly one to travel in a pack neither but since we seem to be going the same direction it seems stupid to make a point of avoiding eachother.”

He took a step towards him and Jimmy stiffened.

“Besides which- I’m armed and you don’t seem to be so from where I’m standing it looks like **you** should be thanking **me** for the protection.”

“I have a hunting knife.” Jimmy said between gritted teeth.

The man’s smile twisted into a full-fledged smirk. “Right. Well it didn’t seem to be doing you a load of good back there….”

Thomas shrugged his shoulders and took two steps backward.

“But if I’m so odious you can’t stand the sight of me then I have no problem fucking off. Good luck to you.” he gave a little mock salute and turned on his heel, walking in the other direction.

Jimmy stood stock still, biting the inside of his mouth and clenching and unclenching his hands into fists before shouting “WAIT.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They walked in silence at first. Jimmy told Thomas to walk in front of him and Thomas had obliged with another smirk and a sassy “no problem, _your ladyship_.” 

It was troublesome because Jimmy found his eyes drawn to Thomas’s backside when he walked and the way the fabric of his jeans tightened around the curve of his arse. It was awkward whenever Thomas turned around to check and make sure Jimmy was keeping pace with him.

He cleared his throat, going red in the face and went to get a bottle of booze out of his backpack because clearly he was going to need it but when he fumbled with the straps a sharp pain went through his wrist.

“ ** _Fuck_** me…” he hissed.

Thomas stopped, blue eyes widening and a cheeky grin splitting his face. “Is that a request? And here I thought you didn’t like me.”

“Sod off.” Jimmy bit back but he was holding his wrist.

Thomas’s grin turned into a frown instantly.  “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my bloody wrist. I think I sprained it when I fell.”

“Oh. Well I’ve got bandages. We can stop here for a minute- I don’t see any of them wandering around.”

Jimmy was twitchy and scowling as Thomas examined his hand but couldn’t deny that after weeks of his only physical contact being with clammy zombie hands trying to rip him limb from limb, Thomas’s soft fingertips were a comfort.

“It’s not sprained, just bruised.” Thomas sighed, “I’m not going to bandage it so you’re just going to have to suck it up, princess.”

“Oh **fuck**. **_off._** ” Jimmy scowled.

He realized how close they were and his frown deepened.

“You smell like cigarettes.” Jimmy muttered.

“You smell like booze.” Thomas countered.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jimmy held his cigarette loosely and took savoring gulps of the smoke, letting it curl in tiny wisps from his mouth.

“Haven’t had a smoke in ages…” he mumbled, continuing to walk and letting the wind play with his hair. The treeline was getting closer- they’d be at the woods by nightfall. It was autumn and the air carried a dry, earthy scent to it and every tree was displaying bright colors like a fire. Thomas handed back the bottle of wine to him which he took a last swig of then stowed in his bag.

“Walking’s a fucking bore. I wish I had my motorbike back but it ran out of petrol…” Thomas said wistfully, “…well. Not so much that I ran out of petrol as Sarah took the last of it and sped off into the sunset on the back of her Harley.”

He took a drag of his cigarette. “…Traitorous bitch.” he added obligatorily.

“Sarah. Your girlfriend?” Jimmy asked in what he’d hoped was a conversational tone but his voice came out much more reedy and high pitched than he wanted it to. He wasn’t sure if he was upset because Thomas wasn’t gay or if he was upset because he’d _thought_ Thomas was gay and hated being proved wrong. He assumed it was the latter. Jimmy had always thought relationships and even attraction to other people was sloppy and unnecessary and it was even more true when the world was overrun with flesh eating undead. He had enough trouble trying to save his own skin, he didn’t need someone else to worry about.

But Thomas just laughed incredulously at his question.

“ ** _Girlfriend_**? Fuck no, man. Sarah’s a middle aged spinster with a bad perm who kills zombies with a hatchet. She was traveling with me for a while but like I said- she took off and left me to die.”

“Oh.” Jimmy responded with thinly veiled relief.

“Can’t say I blame her though.” Thomas added after a minute more of walking in silence, “She was alright for company and crafty as anything- I’ll give her that. But at the end of the day if we were running from zombies I’d have tripped her and run away.”

He smirked and Jimmy found himself returning his smile.

“I could say the same thing about you.” he said evenly making Thomas chuckle.

“Funny. We’re quite a pair.” he said as he lit a fresh cigarette.

“We’re just trying to survive though, aren’t we? And we’re doing a hell of a better job than most others so who can criticize us?” Jimmy shrugged.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By the time the sun went down they’d been walking in the woods for a few hours and they kept trudging on until they had to stop from lack of visibility.

Thomas took out a few candles from his bag and lit them in a cluster between them then frowned.

“It might draw them out.. the light…” he muttered.

“Well we don’t have much choice. You couldn’t find your prick to take a piss when it’s so dark out.” Jimmy said, rubbing his arms to wring the cold out of them and curling up into a ball as Thomas placed the candles in a circle around them.

Jimmy only had a bag of stale crisps and half a granola bar but Thomas had canned food and hot dogs which was a veritable feast by apocalypse standards and that he shared.

“Where did you get all this shit? The food and the ammunition?” Jimmy asked while nearly inhaling a can of peaches.

Thomas just smirked, much more daintily eating with a plastic fork. “If people don’t watch their stuff they can only blame themselves if it gets stolen.”

When they finished Jimmy felt better than he had in atleast a week with something other than carbohydrates in his system.

“So why are you traveling alone?” Thomas asked.

Jimmy shrugged. “I was with a group for a little while but they wanted to try taking one of the ferries to a safe haven in France. I didn’t fancy that. I’ve heard there are even zombies in the ocean and that they attack the ships. Since then I’ve stopped at different places but never stayed anywhere long.”

“You have any family?”

“Not anymore.” Jimmy said quietly, staring at the candlelight, “My mom got infected early on. My dad died a few months later trying to fight the zombies. I didn’t see it happen.”

“….Sorry.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve been estranged from my family since I was a teenager so I have no idea if they’re okay. I don’t think I care much either though…”

Jimmy licked the top of the peach can, savoring the sweet taste and felt Thomas’s eyes on him again from over the flickering shadow of the candle flame between them.

“Should we take turns keeping watch?” Jimmy asked.

“Yeah, might be a good idea…”

“I can go first so you can get some rest.” Jimmy smirked, “Anyway, I don’t want you to try to kiss me in my sleep or anything weird.”

Thomas rolled his eyes and gave him the finger but he was surely blushing.  He took off his jacket and used it as a blanket over his shoulders and closed his eyes.

Jimmy took another swig of alcohol and looked up at the stars for awhile. He felt like they were even brighter than usual lately and wondered vaguely if it was because there weren’t as many humans smogging up the atmosphere or if it was just because the stars were _always_ brighter in the countryside.

When he’d been sitting for a while and he heard Thomas’s breathing become even and slow, he took Thomas’s backpack, slung it over his own shoulders, holding his own backpack in his hand.

“You said it yourself- people who don’t guard their stuff can only blame themselves if it gets stolen.” he whispered.

He kneeled next to the other man’s motionless body. The candlelight was still illuminating his face, his sharp cheekbones casting shadows across his face.

“You were very beautiful…” Jimmy said under his breath, “…but that’s why I can’t stick around, you understand….”

He sighed a little wistfully and turned to stand up but a hand grabbed him by the back of his jacket and pulled him down and a gun clicked by his ear.

“You really think I’m beautiful? I’m flattered.” Thomas whispered in his other ear.

Jimmy grit his teeth and let the rucksack fall to the ground where Thomas picked it up.

“I don’t think I’m nearly as stupid as you give me credit for but it’s good to know who you can’t trust.” Thomas said curtly, keeping his gun pressed at Jimmy’s temple as he picked the backpack off the ground and strapped it to his own back.

Thomas took the first watch that night and when it was Jimmy’s turn he lay literally on top of his backpack to avoid any potential theft.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jimmy refused to talk to Thomas the next morning and refused to accept food from him, opting to eat the remainder of his vending machine granola bar with a sour expression.

“Are you sulking because your ‘grand theft backpack’ scheme fell through?” Thomas asked, smiling cheerily.  

“Are you keeping me your hostage now then?” Jimmy sniffed.

“I already told you you didn’t have to stay with me. I just object to you leaving _with my stuff_.” Thomas waved his plastic fork at him accusingly.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and made to crumple his granola wrapper and toss it in the “Well thanks for all your hospitality but I’m leaving.” Jimmy fumed, standing up. Brief surprise crossed Thomas’s face and he stood up too, blocking his path.

“You’re serious? Without a gun or any food? Do you even have water?”

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” Jimmy hissed between gritted teeth, taking a step forward so their faces were inches apart. Thomas smelled like cigarettes and fire and dead leaves… Jimmy’s heart rate was racing, whether from the close proximity or from the possibility of an impending fight he wasn’t sure. Thomas’s jaw clenched and unclenched and then his expression softened and he lowered his eyes.

“…Just let me give you some food to take. Then you can go.” he mumbled.

Jimmy nodded once reluctantly and sat down, aware of the uncomfortable tightness in his pants as Thomas rummaged bent over his backpack and fished out a small collection of cans to give Jimmy.  

Jimmy had to admit himself for the hundredth time since they’d met that Thomas was handsome. And had soft hands. And Jimmy hadn’t had sex in over a year.

Thomas finally stood up and handed Jimmy a can of baked beans, a jar of peanut butter, and a pack of hotdogs.

Jimmy wondered vaguely how endless Thomas’s backpack of supplies was. _Fucking Mary Poppins over here_ …

Jimmy sighed, his arms full of the food gifts and scowled, shaking his head. Thomas was already walking away.

For the second time since he’d met Thomas, Jimmy, despite his better judgement, called out “WAIT!”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To make sure Thomas didn’t get the wrong idea that Jimmy depended on him or anything, Jimmy stood atleast 5 feet away from Thomas as they continued walking through the woods. He kept giving him glances out of the corner of his eye to make sure he wasn’t staring at him or something creepy like that.

To his chagrin Thomas asked him, “Why do you keep looking over at me?”

Jimmy could feel the blush reaching all the way to his ears and refused to move his eyes even a millimeter from directly infront of him for the next 15 minutes.

Then he heard Thomas chuckling and he looked up again, affronted.

“What’s so bloody funny?” he snapped.

Thomas snapped his mouth shut like a schoolboy that had just gotten scolded and stayed quiet for a few minutes before he finally answered.

“Just… yesterday you made me walk in front of you. And today you’re walking next to me…” The other man smiled slightly, looking down at his feet and hooking his thumbs underneath the straps of his own backpack. Jimmy could swear he saw reddened cheeks underneath the dark stubble.

 _He’s soft_ … Jimmy thought incredulously, _He’s an idiot._

But he was still smart enough to avoid getting robbed. And smart enough to have enough supplies to last him to the end of the apocalypse while Jimmy had been on the brink of running out.

And he owed his life to him.

“So…” Jimmy started reluctantly, “What were you doing? When you first found out about the infection?”

It was an odd qustion but it’s what people liked to talk about in the safe havens and in the groups he’d travelled with. So many of the old conversation starters- what people did for work, what their family were like- were seemingly off limits now. They caused too much sadness. But talking about how they’d first heard of the infection seemed to be a question that had just the right amount of potential for nostalgia without delving too deeply into a past that everyone collectively missed too much to recall without pain.

“Smoking probably.” Thomas said with a half smile. “I remember reading about it when it broke out in Europe. All those fucking politicians were on the news saying it would never reach England but I started worrying back then… I wasn’t surprised when the first reports started coming on about people being bitten in London.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I took off as soon as I heard that- packed as much as I could and headed for where there wouldn’t be as many people. Didn’t help me much, though- still ended up in no man’s lands for 3 months before I got to the countryside.”

The first year after the outbreak, there had been many places that the military gave aid to. Helicopters flew into cities to pick up survivors and deposit them at safe havens or if they couldn’t land then they’d drop off packages of non-perishable food. There were many safe havens around cities with armed guards around them that people could get to where they’d be free of infection and protected from attack. Anyplace that had been abandoned as a lost cause, though, was called a no man’s land. No living man, atleast. They were areas specifically that weren’t receiving military aid but also weren’t isolated enough that they were nearly zombie free. The most dangerous places to be.

“Me and my parents thought it would all blow over. We didn’t get out early and then it was hell trying to escape.” Jimmy shook his head. He knew he was lucky to be alive. He was practically living on borrowed time. He didn’t intend to waste it. “When I first heard about it, it was on the news at the tv at my work. It was ruining everyone’s appetite.”

“You worked at a restaurant?”

“Just as a waiter.”

“I did too for a stint. It fucking sucks, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. I was one of the obnoxious ones who always went on about how I wasn’t really a waiter- I was a successful musician just waiting to happen.” Jimmy laughed, “It seems silly now.”

“You play music?” Thomas asked, eyebrows raised.

“I sing a little. Play a little guitar and piano… Well, anything I can get my hands on really.” Jimmy said, “Ah- I have a harmonica with me. It’s the only thing light enough to really carry around. When I first left I brought an acoustic guitar as well.”

Thomas grinned at him. “Can’t remember the last time I heard music. Probably when my iPod still had charge.”

Jimmy chuckled, “Well then I’ll deign to give you a performance.” He winked saucily and added, “Anything for my fans.”

Jimmy fished the harmonica out of his bag and played As Tears Go By by The Rolling Stones on it as they walked. Thomas closed his eyes as if he was listening to some great symphony.

The temperature wasn’t cold yet but ocassionally a gust of wind would blow through the trees making the branches shake and the leaves skitter with a sound like crumpling paper. In those moments they both looked up, just incase it was a zombie.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That day they found two zombies caught in a net suspended from the branch of a big maple tree.

“Looks like we’re not the first ones through this forest. Someone was smart enough to set traps. Probably the people from the nearest safe haven…” Thomas mused.

Jimmy scowled. Even a safe few meters away he could smell the rancid flesh. He hated that about zombies. Hated the way they smelled, hated how they looked…. After more than a year fighting for his life everyday he should’ve become less “shallow” or “used to it” in some way but he wasn’t. They were ugly and disgusting. They turned his stomach.

“Let’s just leave them.”

“Can’t.” Thomas said, he was standing much closer than Jimmy would’ve dared to- just out of reach of the still twitching zombies’ clawing hands through the holes of the net. Their fingernails were bent back and bloodied.

Thomas pointed to the bottom the net.

“The rope’s are starting to fray here. I don’t want to take a chance of them getting loose later and coming after us.” Thomas looked back at Jimmy, “It’s too high up to reach though.”

“So shoot them.”

“You really think I’d waste my bullets on a non-moving target?”

“Well then what exactly do you have in mind?” Jimmy snapped impatiently.

Five minutes later, Jimmy was mounted on Thomas’s shoulders, hunting knife gripped in shaking hands, looking straight in the hollow eyes of the trapped zombie.

“How the fuck did you talk me into this…” Jimmy muttered, swallowing.

“It’s easier than having to kill them later.” Thomas said from below him.

The zombie in front of his face let out a low moan and reached it’s hand out greedily towards Jimmy, fingers practically brushing against his cheek, causing him to jerk back and wobble on Thomas’s shoulders.

“Oi- don’t fall!” Thomas grabbed onto Jimmy’s legs dangling over his chest to keep him steady and Jimmy squeezed his thighs tighter around the back of his neck, placing one hand on top of Thomas’s head to hold onto.

“Just get it over with quick- you’re bloody heavy.” Thomas muttered.

“Ha.” Jimmy laughed nervously, “Yeah, right. Bet you’re enjoying this.”

The zombie’s tongue was lolling out of it’s mouth obscenely… there were maggots crawling from between its teeth…

“I might be a bit.” Thomas chuckled, “But if you think I’m going to carry you this way through the forest for the rest of the day then forget about it.”

Jimmy laughed again though his hands felt clammy and it felt like all his brain power was going into just breathing shallowly through his mouth to avoid the smell. His hand tightened in Thomas’s hair for support and he heard the man under him make a small sound of protest which he ignored.

He raised the hunting knife up and squeezed one eye shut as he brought it down with force in the first zombie’s face. The sound was wet… mushy… He couldn’t imagine that would be what it sounded like if he’d stabbed a living person in the face. He supposed that should’ve been a comfort… He opened both eyes again.

He’d stabbed him in the eye and it was dangling loosely and damaged from it’s newly bloodied socket but it’s face was still twitching.

Jimmy stabbed it a second time, bringing the knife down directly to the center of the crown of it’s head. It went limp.

Jimmy wasn’t sure how he’d become so out of breath like he’d run a mile. He wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. Thomas was silent but gave his shin a light squeeze.

The next one Jimmy didn’t look at- he brought the knife down about ten times, aiming roughly for it’s head. He played a song in his head. Loud enough to drown out the noise. When he opened his eyes again the zombie’s head was split open and leaking blood like a piece of fruit. It was on his hands and staining his blade.

“I-I got them both.” Jimmy said, loosening his grip in Thomas’s hair.

Thomas kneeled down and let Jimmy climb off him shakily, stumbling a bit when his feet returned to solid ground.

Thomas put a hand on his shoulder.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

“How many have you killed?”

“Dunno. Haven’t exactly kept count. I know a lot of blokes that have. Though I’m sure they exaggerate about it. Definitely over a dozen for me. What about you?”

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders: “Not a lot. I’m not really for it to be honest. I end up hiding and running a lot more than killing.”

Thomas smiled at him briefly.

“That’s smart, though. Smarter than those idiots who just fire aimlessly into the crowds and waste all their ammo.” he blew smoke out of the corner of his mouth, “Sometimes I worry humanity’s gonna run out of ammo before we run out of zombies. I mean, it’s not like it’s exactly being mass produced anymore, is it? That’s why I take the bullets out of the bodies sometimes and re-use them if it’s safe to do so.”

The sound of the leaves crunching under Thomas’s combat boots was strangely comforting and rhythmic.

“Y’know…” Thomas said, looking in front of him, “I was never a big fan of humanity before all this. I mean… I fucking hate most people that I meet. And I don’t think that’s changed or anything… But people are even worse when they’re dead and still walking around. They should have the courtesy to just lay down and **_die_** already.”

Jimmy took a bottle of gin out of his backpack and took a sip, handing it to Thomas. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten so close. Their shoulders kept brushing against eachother as they walked.

“My dad said ‘the dead should stay dead’.” Jimmy said, “He said that after my mum got bit.”

Thomas took a drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I knew someone who got bit too…” he said without looking at Jimmy. “It wasn’t that long after the infection broke out, I was traveling with a little group for a bit… He was uh… He was blind. When the infection broke out in some of the cities the military thought maybe using gas on the zombies would kill them so they dropped it in bombs on whole streetways and whoever was there that wasn’t infected was just out of luck. Edward lived but he lost his sight.” Thomas shrugged, smiling a bit, “He got on pretty well though. He never held us up even though he always insisted he was a burden. We told him we’d protect him.”

His smile faded and he took another swig of the gin.

“But we didn’t do a very good job. He got bit. He started getting the fever, y’know? Sweating and burning up… Like I said, it was early on so everyone was still thinking there could be a cure any day. We told him we’d find a cure for him…. that we’d **_stay_** with him until they found a cure….”

Jimmy swallowed.

“…He never wanted to be trouble for the rest of us… He slit his wrists in the night before he turned.” Thomas sniffed, “Probably right. He would’ve been endangering us if he’d turned into a zombie, even if we said we’d be fine. We would’ve just ended up having to kill him…. Anyway, I left the group after that. Travelled on my own again for a long while. Stopped in different towns and cities but never stayed anywhere long. Then eventually I met Sarah.”

“I don’t like to stay anywhere for long either now. I tried staying at a safehaven with my family in the beginning but after a while the infection got in. That’s what happens everytime, isn’t it? If you feel safe anywhere, then that’s when you need to leave because nowhere’s safe for long. Now I get so _restless_ ….” he trailed off.

Thomas stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowing and Jimmy’s breath caught in his throat.

“You hear something? Zombies…?” he whispered.

“No. Sounds like… running water.” Thomas said.

They stumbled through the woods, ears pricked for the sound of trickling.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The waterfall was perfect. They had to do a steep uphill climb, practically scaling the side of a mountain, to reach it which meant it was less likely to be attacked by zombies (notoriously bad climbers). And it was beautiful.

It was the moment of the day before sunset when the sun shone most brilliantly like a dying breath. The water was sparkling.

“Well I don’t care about you, I am taking a bath.” Thomas said, resting his backpack on the ground and promptly tossing his jacket on top of it.

Jimmy took his clothes off more slowly, distracted by watching Thomas who had his back turned to him. Watching the tight cords of muscles in his arms move slightly as he undid the button of his jeans. He was broadchested but his body almost tapered out toward his waist where his ribs were clearly visible. Jimmy knew his certainly were too. That’s what happens when you run and fight for your life everyday and only eat when you can find food. There was dark hair on his chest leading down in a line all the way down his stomach to the edge of his boxers which he was slipping off…

Jimmy turned his head away, blushing like a virgin schoolgirl. He was feeling stirrings he hadn’t felt in two years. _No, not even that_. Desire stronger than he’d **_ever_** felt.

 _Well, the cold water ought to do me good at the very least_ …

He turned away and began undoing his pants. He heard a splash as Thomas jumped into the water behind him and let out a woop- either from joy or from the temperature.

Jimmy stripped down and walked to the other side of the pool at the base of the waterfall, covering himself with his hands (more to hide his arousal than out of shame), as he slipped into the water. It was frigid but energizing. He ducked his head under, running his hands thoroughly through his hair. When he flipped his head back up he was grinning.

Thomas smiled back at him, “Who knew Shangrila was in Northern England, eh?”

“It’s perfect here…” Jimmy mumbled, falling back and letting himself float. Sunlight spilled across the water through the canopy created by the tall, ancient, oaks and pines surrounding the water. There were red and orange leaves floating all around him.

He turned his head to the side. Thomas was running his hands through his hair, slicking it back against his head. He cupped his hands into the water and spilled it across his chest, rubbing it into his skin.

 _Beautiful_ … Jimmy thought, feeling nearly drunk on a sense of peace that he hadn’t felt in years.  

The older man examined his own reflection in the still surface of the water and scowled, running his hand against the stubble of his chin.

After a moment Thomas seemed to realize he was being watched and looked over at Jimmy, smiling sheepishly.

“I had a straight razor a few months ago but I lost it in a zombie’s cranium.” he explained.

“You look very rugged now. It’s handsome.” Jimmy assured him without thinking, quickly feeling heat raise to his cheeks in a flood of embarassment.

Thomas smiled, a lock of wet hair falling across his face as he bowed his head slightly.

“Thank you.” he mumbled.

 _I like you_. Jimmy thought with great clarity. Maybe because he hadn’t been any place where he’d felt he could even breathe for a moment since the infection had broken out. The world had become a setting that didn’t exactly breed clear thoughts. But this one rung true as if there was nothing else floating around in the space of his head. Rang through every inch of his body down to his toes to the tips of his hair, and reverberated in every fiber of him.

Jimmy swallowed, feeling an uncomfortable, twisting heaviness on his chest as he stood up again in the water. He realized vaguely that he was shivering. The water was frigid. He didn’t know how he could’ve bared to stay in it so long. It felt like it would freeze him through.

He waded back to shore, pulling his boxers on and pulling a sweater over his head.

“Were your fingers starting to turn to prunes?” Thomas called from the water.

“Y-yeah.” Jimmy called back shakily. He looked back up at the sky to distract himself from the sight of Thomas getting out of the water. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with purple and red.

Thomas sat down a few feet away from him, wearing nothing but his boxers and his leather jacket draped over his shoulders, and lit a cigarette. He looked out at the water, aquiline profile stark against the light of the sunset.

 _I feel safe around you_ …. Jimmy’s thoughts whispered to him …. _the moment you feel safe is when you have to leave._

The sun was fading but the nearly unseasonable warmth that had been with them the whole day still hung in the air.

“Do you want a drag?” Thomas asked, offering his cigarette to Jimmy who nodded and accepted it. His lips felt the slight dampness on the filter from Thomas’s mouth. Raw desire rolled in the pit of his stomach. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and holding the smoke in his lungs until it was nearly painful. Thomas’s fingers brushed against his as he took the cigarette back.

“…It’s nice, this place.” Thomas finally said, eyes turned up to the sky. “But it’s nicer because you’re here…”

He turned to him and smiled.

_What’s the point of surviving if you have nothing to live for….?_

Jimmy sniffed, taking the cigarette back and drawing in a quick puff.

“Are you trying to seduce me with a line like that?”  Jimmy exhaled out of the corner of his mouth, looking at Thomas skeptically.

The other man smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“A man can try.”

Jimmy nodded slowly and stamped the cigarette out in the ground.

“Well it bloody worked.” he said seriously then took Thomas’s face in his hands and claimed his mouth with his own, eagerly sucking against Thomas’s lips, swirling his tongue against him, curling his fingers in his damp hair until he broke away.

“Jimmy…”

He laughed breathlessly at the expression on Thomas’s face, comically wide eyed, his mouth hanging open. He ran his thumb against his lower lip, trailing it down his chin, down his neck, across his adam’s apple, down his chest…

“God, Thomas…” he muttered, eyebrows creasing, “I like you. I think I’ve liked you for a while.”

He resumed his kiss and this time Thomas returned it eagerly, putting his hands against Jimmy’s chest then roaming down his ribcage, coming to rest against his hips.  

He hissed, feeling his cock pressing against his boxers.

“Jimmy, do you… do you really… I mean, this isn’t just a plot to steal my stuff, right?” Thomas asked which made Jimmy burst out with a hysteric bark of a laugh.

“What’s the point of stealing from you? When I tried to leave, you were prepared to give me so much of it anyway! Why bother stealing?” Jimmy laughed, feeling tears prick at the corners of his eyes which stayed there after the laughter died as affection bloomed in his chest so painfully he thought it would burst him open. “Oh, Thomas…”

Thomas looked at him hesitantly at first then a smile twitched across his already swollen lips and he seemed to make up his mind and summon his courage. Thomas’s kisses were hungry and needy like he was starving for Jimmy’s mouth, his tongue, his taste… They moaned against eachother’s lips as their hips ground together, their stiff cocks rubbing through the fabric of their underwear.

Thomas gave Jimmy several much more chaste kisses before pulling away again. He ran his hands across the flat plane of Jimmy’s chest, his eyes wandering across his body like he’d never seen something so beautiful.

“Jimmy, I’ve only known you for two days…” he said quietly, blue eyes flicking up to meet his, “But I know you better than I’ve ever known anyone in my whole life.”

Jimmy closed his eyes, kissing the palm of Thomas’s hand gently.

“Don’t go soft on me now… I want you to fuck me like tonight’s the last night on earth. ‘Cause it might be.” Jimmy said and watched Thomas’s eyebrows raise as he nodded slowly.

“Okay… just a second…” Thomas stood up and walked away(with a slight limping gait, Jimmy noticed with satisfaction). When he returned it was with a small tube of KY Jelly.

“I was beginning to think I would never get a chance to use this. Glad I didn’t toss it.” Thomas said with a breathless chuckle.  

“Me too.” Jimmy agreed.

The first finger hurt and Jimmy cried out, grabbing Thomas’s wrist to stop him.

“Sorry, sorry…” Thomas mumbled, spreading Jimmy’s legs farther apart and positioning himself lower. He gently circled his thumb around Jimmy’s entrance without trying to push in and at the same time began gently lapping his tongue against Jimmy’s erection.

It had been two long since Jimmy had even jerked off, nevermind sex… His back arched against the damp ground and a choked gasp wrung from his throat.

Thomas moved his head down, pressing his lips in messy kisses all along Jimmy’s shaft, circling the tip of his tongue teasingly around the head of his cock until Jimmy was panting and writhing underneath him. Slowly, very slowly, he pushed the tip of his finger into Jimmy’s hole, slicking it with lubricant.

This time the pain and pleasure were mixed and Jimmy quickly began nearly shivering at the feeling of Thomas’s finger opening him again and demanded “more”.

Thomas leaned over Jimmy, balancing one of his legs over his shoulder and lowering his face to kiss Jimmy’s stomach as he added the second slicked finger.

“Nnngh… God…” Jimmy moaned at the stretch. He’d nearly forgotten how good this felt and he was desperate for more, for faster, for harder, for **_all_** of Thomas.

He moved his hips up and down on his own, fucking himself on Thomas’s fingers and whimpering between gritted teeth. Thomas’s breath was coming out ragged above him and hot on his skin.

“Please… I’m ready… F-fuck me… Fuck me, Thomas…”

Thomas pulled his fingers free and Jimmy hissed in dissapointment but nearly felt his mouth watering as he watched Thomas sit back on his haunches and slather his thick, jutting, cock with the lubricant, making a low and strangled noise of frustration from deep in his chest as he ran his hands across the now painfully hard and sensitive area.

He leaned over Jimmy once more, spreading his thighs with his hands and raising his hips up to align with his own. Jimmy quickly wrapped his legs around Thomas’s waist, locking his ankles behind him.

“Thomas, hurry, hurry” Jimmy whined, digging his fingernails into the ground next to him.

Slowly Thomas pushed forward, gently coaxing Jimmy open until he was fully seated inside him and Jimmy felt sharp, excrutiating pleasure flood through his body.

“ ** _There_**. Oh _, fuck._ Thomas… Shit…”

“Jesus, Jimmy, you feel so good…” Thomas grunted hoarsely as he began moving his hips faster, burying himself inside Jimmy with every thrust.

Jimmy reasoned with himself that it must be lust. Because how could he love someone he’d only met so recently when Jimmy had never really loved anyone but himself and his parents for his whole life? But if it was lust than it was such a lust as he’d never experienced. He wanted Thomas more than he’d ever wanted anyone, ever wanted _anything_. And it wasn’t just a sensation in his prick, it was a tingling  warmth that spread out through his whole chest and tickled his stomach and made his head spin. And it was all for Thomas. Thomas who had made him feel everything he thought he’d forgotten how to feel and some things which he’d never felt before. Who’d made him laugh for the first time since the infection broke out, who’d filled his mind with the music that had been absent for over two years.

Tears ran down from the corners of his eyes as their bodies slid into perfect harmony again and again, filling him to complete satisfaction. He threw his arms around Thomas’s neck and pulled his upper body up so he was sitting on his lap.

Jimmy said Thomas’s name like he was begging as he moved himself up and down his shaft, tangling his fingers in his dark hair to steady himself.

“I’m gonna cum… Fuck, _fuck_ , I can’t…” Thomas put his mouth on Jimmy’s collarbone and sucked hard enough to leave a mark to stifle his moan. Jimmy raked his fingers down his back as Thomas wrapped his hand around Jimmy’s prick, bringing him off so they came at the same time.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There was something slightly unsentimental about it. There had been little foreplay, they’d each come once then stopped. But it was getting dark out and cold out. And the undead walked the earth. And they could hear wolves howling in the distance. Jimmy hadn’t thought that there would ever come a circumstance in the post apocalyptic world where he’d have time for sex at all.

They shivered afterwards from the chill and put their clothes back on quickly, laughing nervously and smiling at eachother through the darkness circumscribed by moonlight. Jimmy still had wet leaves sticking to his skin and dirt that he shook out of his hair. It had been messy and brief and in a slightly uncomfortable location.  It had been the most romantic sex Jimmy had ever had.

Thomas placed a kiss on his temple when they’d both finished dressing and Jimmy lay nestled in his arms, Thomas’s leather jacket shared across their bodies.

“I’m glad I decided to stay…” Jimmy whispered against Thomas’s neck.

“I’m glad I stayed alive long enough to meet you.” Thomas said.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jimmy was reluctant to leave the next morning. He spent several minutes staring at the view, trying to etch it in his mind, knowing that the previous night might be the happiest he would be for the rest of his life. You never knew.

They made it out of the forest and came to a cornfield.

“God, how long do you think this goes on for?” Jimmy asked irritably, swatting a dried out corn husk out of his face.

Thomas smirked at him over his shoulder.

“If you want to sit on my shoulders again you can try to see how long it stretches out for.”

Jimmy returned his smirk. “You just want an excuse to have your head between my thighs again- anyway you can get it.”

Thomas chuckled, turning back.

It was colder that day. The wind rustled the dead stalks until the air was filled with the sound of it. A crow flew up in the distance.

They walked for what seemed like hours but could’ve been minutes- it was impossible to tell with the uniformity of the cornfield making it feel like they were moving in place.

Jimmy picked up a piece of half rotted corn from the ground and picked at the kernels absently as they walked. He whistled a song by Johnny Cash.

“ _I have been ungrateful, I’ve been unwise. Restless from the cradle, now I realize_.” Thomas spoke the lyrics out loud, smiling gently.

Thomas stopped suddenly in his tracks and Jimmy bumped into his back.

He stood on his tiptoes to peer over Thomas’s shoulder and his stomach turned. Less than a yard away from the edge of Thomas’s boots was bloodstained ground.

“God…” Jimmy mumbled, covered his nose with the back of his hand. There were flies buzzing noisily around it, occasionally lighting on the chunks of discolored flesh leftover that was teeming with maggots.

“Let’s go this way…” Thomas said solemnly, turning away from it and pushing through the cornstalks to the side. Jimmy followed him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sun was still high in the sky when they came. And Jimmy smelled them before he saw them. The sharp, whistling, wind carried their scent. He looked at Thomas and knew he could smell it too but didn’t say anything.

Jimmy took Thomas’s hand and clasped it firmly in his.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A rotten arm had sprung from the side, fingertips landing on Jimmy’s face, caressing his cheekbone nearly lovingly as the limping form fell out from between the cornstalks to his side.

Jimmy fell back and Thomas pistolwhipped the zombie in the face, knocking it back into the cornstalks, then took Jimmy’s hand again and began running.

The high cornstalks had obscured them. When they came, they came from all directions. And they seemed endless. Thomas and Jimmy didn’t need to communicate to know to run and they did, sprinting as fast as their feet could take them, stepping over cornstalks as they went and as they got farther into the field, stepping over dead, mangled, corpses of previous victims too.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was stupid, Jimmy thought, to ever feel safe when the word is already over and there are more dead people walking than living people walking. It was stupid.

The adrenaline was pouring through him as he ran next to Thomas. Thomas kept looking over his shoulder. Jimmy refused to. He didn’t have to. He could hear them, _smell_ them…

His breath was short. He was panting like a dog. But they couldn’t stop. You can _never_ stop running.

“What are we going to do?!” He shouted at Thomas, feeling desperation seeping into his veins like a drug.

Thomas’s eyes flicked around once then he grabbed Jimmy by the shirt and pulled him sideways, out of the path of the zombies then directed them both forward again in a zig zag direction away.

“We can’t keep this up!” Jimmy shouted, panic making his heart hammer painfully and his voice come out high pitched.

“I know…” Thomas said back solemnly. He stopped and Jimmy stopped too though every instinct in his body was screaming for him not to.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Jimmy shouted, seeing the zombies advancing towards them only a few dozen yards away, arms outstretched.

Thomas turned to him, clasped his face in his hands and kissed him deeply on the mouth.

“Jimmy… I’m going to hold them up and you’re going to run away.”

“What…?!”

He almost laughed. Thomas’s face was placid. He took his backpack off his shoulders and removed two handguns, a knife, ammo, and his cricket bat then handed the backpack to Jimmy. When it slipped through Jimmy’s fingers and landed on the ground, he picked it up again and calmly put it over Jimmy’s shoulders, strapping it in place. He took one of the guns and pressed it into Jimmy’s palm, folding his fingers around it.

“Jimmy. ** _I’m_** going to hold them up and **_you’re_** going to run away.” he said slowly, insistently.

He began to turn and Jimmy grabbed him by the back of his shirt, nearly clawing at him.

“You can’t! Thomas!”

 “I’ll catch up with you later.” Thomas said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. His lighter shook in his hands.

“I’ll stay with you! I’ll fight them with you!”

The zombies were coming closer, they were stumbling overthemselves in their desperate hunger.

Jimmy shook Thomas, trying to jar the idea from his mind.

“Thomas! Don’t do this! I can’t—I can’t keep going! You **_have_** to come with me! **_Please_**!”

The undead were feet away, one’s mouth opened, jaw falling unnaturally, and let out a shrieking moan.

“Jimmy! Run!” Thomas shouted, shoving Jimmy hard away from him. Jimmy stumbled forward in slow motion, his head turning over his shoulder. He saw Thomas’s back. Saw him taking the cricket bat out with one hand, gun in the other hand.

Jimmy closed his eyes. And turned his head. And broke into a run.

He couldn’t hear anything. Just his heartbeat and the wind rushing past his ears. Cornstalks smacked against his face, the cold made his eyes sting, his legs were sore but they weren’t stopping. He ran and no one stopped him. He kept sprinting until he was out of the cornfield, until he was in woods again, until there was no light left, until he collapsed under a tree.

Before he caught his breath he was sobbing. Sobbing so hard that snot and tears streaked his face and he didn’t care. His whole body wracked and he tasted bile in his mouth from the exertion and from the twisting in his stomach. He didn’t speak, he didn’t think. He pulled his legs up to his chest and pressed his hands on either side of his head and cried like a child for hours.

When thoughts finally came they were fragmented and disordered.

_I knew it… Fucking coward… This always happens… Thomas… Gone…_

And he lay paralyzed with his arms wrapped around himself for the entire night staring at the ground and wondering why and how he could still be alive if Thomas Barrow wasn’t.

When the sun rose Jimmy stood up and wiped his sleeve across his face. He mounted Thomas’s backpack on his shoulders. It was a heavy weight that was nearly comforting. And he kept walking, dragging his feet every step. He didn’t stop for food, only took a few drinks of water, didn’t slow his pace.

And before the sun had even begun to lower again in the sky, the trees around Jimmy began to get more sparse and he felt gravel under his feet and sunlight shining unobstructed on his face.

He turned his face upward for the first time that day and saw he was on a long driveway and in the distance, a magnificent cream colored castle rose up before him, many storied with rectangular turrets jutting out from it’s top.

Fresh tears sprung to his eyes though not of relief.

“We were so close, Thomas… we were almost here…” he whispered.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As he walked up towards the castle he suddenly saw his sweatshirt become spotted with a half dozen tiny red dots of light and looked up to see snipers leaning out of the windows of the house’s upper stories, all aiming straight at him.

Slowly he put his hands over his head.

Sitting on the door step was a hard-faced woman with a cigarette dangling from her lips and raggedly curled brown hair who had a double barred shot gun levelled straight between Jimmy’s eyes.

“You bit?” she asked.

Jimmy shook his head then squinting a bit asked cautiously, “… are you Sarah by any chance?”

She blinked and then glared at him, looking more ready to shoot than ever.

“Who wants to know?”

“I was… I was travelling with Thomas Barrow.” Jimmy said. He couldn’t cry anymore. Not even if he’d wanted to. He was dehydrated and exhausted and all out of tears. But he could still feel the tightening in his chest.

Sarah lowered her gun, her expression softening ever so slightly.

“Where is Thomas…?”

Jimmy swallowed hard.

“He didn’t make it…” he answered stiffly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Downton Abbey was what it had been called before. It used to be a big estate house for lords and ladies or something. The interior was certainly posh enough though getting less posh everyday as the 60 or so people living inside used it’s furniture for firewood, took down paintings and wrote out important information on the back of them, and ripped up the curtains and wall hangings to use as blankets and bath towels. And there **_were_** baths. Near the house was more than one pond which they took from, strained, and then boiled into perfectly drinkable water.

The heat wasn’t good (as in- nonexistent) but there were plenty of huge, orante, fireplaces that kept the house livable. Jimmy wasn’t sure how the house could’ve possibly held just one family at any point in time- there was enough space that each person got a bedroom with a king sized bed and their own fireplace.

There was a kitchen which had had mostly rotten food which they’d disposed of but some canned goods that hadn’t yet run out. Most of the food they got was from hunting the animals in the woods and growing a garden in some of the huge space of the estate. They were self sufficient. They were **_safe_** and had been for the last year apparently. People took turns keeping watch at all times. They had sniper rifles with shit tons of ammunition. They never let anyone in without checking them all over for bites. It truly was a safe haven. And for once Jimmy felt he might be able to stay there for some time and not have to be on the run again.

“It’s good here. I don’t trust much- how can you in times like these? But I trust this place.” Anna, the woman who’d given him a tour of the haven had said to him. She had a husband whose leg was gone from the knee down. When she’d caught Jimmy staring at it she’d explained in hushed tones that he’d been bitten on the foot by a zombie once and had had to cut the leg off to stop the spread of the infection. He limped around with a cane and seemed to have eyes (and words) only for Anna who doted on him like they were still highschool sweethearts.

Jimmy thanked her for the tour but went to his room and stayed there, looking out the window.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning Jimmy didn’t eat breakfast. He sat in his room and unpacked Thomas’s backpack on the floor. He counted all the different types of canned foods and smiled to himself when he found 3 chocolate bars saved in a special pocket with a pocketwatch that didn’t tell time anymore. There was the KY jelly and even 2 condoms, a few packs of alcohol swabs, bandages and medical tape, a toothbrush, and a few packs of vegetable seeds which Jimmy resolved to plant in Downton’s garden. He unzipped more pockets and found more items and little trinkets. There were a few buttons (one of which he recognized as being missing from Thomas’s leather jacket) and sewing needles in a little box, but no string. The thought of Thomas sitting (maybe someplace safe, maybe in the room next to the kitchen in Downton where people ate their meals sometimes) and sewing buttons back onto his clothes with the rest of the world crumbling around him made Jimmy start crying and he wasn’t completely sure why.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The dot in the horizon coming out of the treeline could’ve been anything or anyone. As Jimmy watched by the window, paralyzed, he told himself not to get his hopes up. But as the figure got closer to the castle, Jimmy saw dark hair, a black jacket… and he knocked his chair over in his rush to stand up and race from the room.

He took the stairs two at a time but when he got to the front door, Anna’s husband stopped him, putting a firm hand on his chest to hold him back.

“Don’t go out yet…”

Jimmy tried to brush him off, annoyed, “You don’t understand- that’s my friend out there. I know it is.”

The other man held tight to Jimmy’s sweatshirt, keeping him back and looked him in the eye solemnly.

“He might not be the friend you knew anymore….”

Jimmy’s heart sank and he took a step back, watching, waiting. The figure got closer and when he could make out Thomas’s face his body nearly lurched forward of it’s own accord but he held back… The red dots covered the front of his shirt as the snipers from the upstairs laid their aim on him… and then he raised his hands above his head in surrender.

Jimmy leapt out the door and sprinted across the grass.

He didn’t slow down when he reached Thomas and nearly knocked him the ground as he wrapped his arms around him- only seeing for a brief moment Thomas’s face turn to recognition, relief, and then joy when he saw Jimmy.

He didn’t smell like rot. He smelled like cigarettes. And dead leaves. And everything Jimmy remembered and had feared he would never smell again.

“I’m sorry…” Jimmy said brokenly, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his face against Thomas’s chest. “I shouldn’t have run off like that…”

Thomas chuckled and ran a hand through Jimmy’s hair affectionately.

“Course you should have. Otherwise what was I bloody doing it for?”

“Never again.” Jimmy promised, “I’m never going to let you go again. Not even for a fucking minute.”

“Why? Were you worried about me? I ** _told_** you I’d see you later.” Thomas said nonchalantly and Jimmy punched him in the ribs.

Thomas followed Jimmy back to the front of the house where Sarah saw Thomas and without a change in expression raised her shotgun to his forehead.

Thomas smiled wryly.

“Hello, Sarah. Lovely to see _you_ again too.”

“You’re not coming in here unless I know you’re not infected.” she said back curtly.

She took a step forward, pressing the palm of her hand to his forehead, then the back of it to his cheek.

She clicked her tongue.

“What a shame… you’ll live.” she said but something dangerously close to a smirk twitched across her mouth.

Thomas drawled, “Well I told you I’d see you in hell if nothing else. Not that a reptile like you would ever die. Zombie bit you you’d probably just turn into a nicer person.” he added quickly, “Though I think anything could be an improvement at this point.”

Her smirk widened into what was almost a genuine smile and she let out a small huff of air that might’ve been perceived as a chuckle.

“Oh fuck off and take a bath, Thomas. You smell like someone dragged you through a sewer.”

“It’s better than _looking_ like someone did.” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth as he let Jimmy lead him inside.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“They have a piano here. In the downstairs room.” Jimmy said as he sat behind Thomas in the clawfoot bathtub, running a sponge across his back.

Thomas blew smoke out of the side of his mouth and tapped his cigarette into the ashtray beside the tub. He’d found a razor in the house and used it to shave off his beard. Jimmy was still adjusting to it. He looked so neat now with his hair slicked back from his head with bathwater and no stubble around his chin.

“Well that’s probably a step up from just the harmonica. Though if we need to leave I hope I don’t have to drag you away while you try and fit the grand piano in your rucksack.” Thomas said.

Jimmy smiled and pressed a kiss on the back of Thomas’s neck which tasted like soap now.

“I don’t think we’ll have to leave all too soon…. Weirdly, I have a good feeling about this place.” he wrung the sponge out, pulling Thomas closer to him and resting his chin on his shoulder, “And I never say that.”

When Jimmy had undressed Thomas he’d feared he might find some hidden bite on him that neither of them had known about but there was none. He had bloodstains on his arms but they hadn’t been his own blood and he was covered in bruises but no bites, no scratches…. It was a miracle. Thomas insisted it _wasn’t_ a miracle, it was because he was incredible.

“I think you’re right…” Thomas mused, looking out the tall windows that went from nearly the floor to the ceiling out at the land of Downton’s estate. “It’s funny… I feel almost like we were _meant_ to be here or something…”

“Mmn…” Jimmy agreed, placing more kisses along Thomas’s shoulders. “You’re right. I’m looking forward to staying here... with you.”

“It’s too bad there’s all these other idiots staying here, though…” Thomas said nonchalantly, swirling his hand in the soapy water.

“Why’s that?” Jimmy asked, trailing the tip of his tongue along Thomas’s spine.

“Because…” Thomas said, turning around in the bath, splashing water on the floor and kissing Jimmy’s neck. “…I’d really like to fuck you on every surface of this stupidly big house…”

Jimmy sighed in mock sadness. “Well… There’s plenty of rooms people never go in. I’m sure we can make a start atleast.”

“I’d like to make a start in our new bedroom.”

They left wet footprints on the floor as they slipped their way into the adjoining bedroom and flopped down on the four poster bed. Jimmy wasn’t sure if it was the softest bed ever made or if anything felt that way in comparison to the ground he’d been sleeping on for two years.

Jimmy rolled over so he was on top of Thomas, rubbing his already hard cock aggressively against the line of hair on his stomach as he hungrily tugged on his lower lip with his teeth.

“Thomas… You are never doing anything so stupid ever again… I’m not going to lose you… Never again…” Jimmy panted, lowering his kisses to Thomas’s jawline, neck, chest, gently biting his nipple. “We’re going to stay here, right here in this big comfy bed, buggering eachother until someone finds a cure and the apocalypse ends….”

“When will we have time to eat? Or play music?” Thomas managed to ask between gasps.

“Mmn.. you’re right… Suppose we’ll have to take breaks… When we’re too tired, we’ll play music. And I’ll write you songs. And we’ll dance, too…” _and do all the things I never thought I would have the chance to do with you._

“Jimmy…” Thomas ran his hands through Jimmy’s hair, stroking his hands down his neck, “…Can we…? Can we really be that happy?”

“Yes.” Jimmy said definitely before kissing the tip of Thomas’s hardening cock.

“Ah- you don’t-“

“You’ve saved my life twice in the past week, I think you deserve a blowjob.” Jimmy said curtly, running his tongue along the slit. He paused and looked up at Thomas and murmured sincerely “You were brave, Thomas… very brave.” before taking Thomas deep into his throat. He moaned around the taste of soap and skin, sucking deeply until he could hear Thomas groaning. When Thomas began panting and moving his hips slightly, Jimmy pulled his cock out of his mouth and sat astride Thomas. Thomas held his hips as Jimmy slowly guided Thomas’s cock into his arse, wincing at the stretch but whimpering at the fullness.

After a moment of adjustment Jimmy began to rock against Thomas’s hips, his own cock bobbing against his stomach and leaking cum as he moved. Thomas took Jimmy’s cock in his hand and began jerking him off quickly to the same rhythm as Jimmy’s hips moved.

“I’m glad you’re alive.” Jimmy wheezed, “I don’t think I could live without this.”

“I’m glad I’m alive too.” Thomas responded weakly, arching his hips up against Jimmy’s arse, “To feel this if nothing else.”

“Nnngh…” Jimmy felt as if electricity was skittering across his body as Thomas nudged a specific spot deep inside him and he made a helpless noise at the back of his throat as he moved faster, sweat dripping down the back of his neck.

Thomas was beautiful underneath him- face going between contorting with concentration and then falling slack from numbing pleasure. His chest heaved with deep, rolling, gasps that made his pale neck quiver. Jimmy’s hands curled in the sheets and he let his head fall, jaw hanging open.

“God… I’m coming… Thomas, I’m going to come…”

Thomas’s hands gripped Jimmy’s hips tighter as they both rode out their orgasm, their muscles coiling in the pressure of the release until Jimmy collapsed on Thomas. Their bodies entwined together, sticky and sweat covered.

“Is it too soon to say I love you…?” Thomas finally asked, nuzzling his face against the crook of Jimmy’s neck as Jimmy stroked his hair.

“Mmmn, no. Because I love you too, Thomas Barrow…”

 The beginning of the sunrise’s light began to stream in through the windows onto their four poster bed and Jimmy pulled the velvet covered duvet over their heads. They were ready to start their new life… A life of safety without running away…. but not until they’d had a good night’s sleep, wrapped in eachother’s arms, feeling eachother’s heartbeats reminding them they were alive.

 


	2. Post Apocalyptic Domestic Bliss

They’d been at the abbey for over a year and things had changed.

Less zombies were shot wandering toward the perimeter of the property.

At first it had made Jimmy nervous. It was his way of thinking, he supposed. Every night that there were no zombie kills, he feared that there’d be three the next day to make up for it. And then after a while when they’d had no hoards and only stragglers for months, he had a worst and more existential fear.

The abbey often felt huge to Jimmy- one could easily get lost in it. So many of the rooms were vacant, the furniture strewn about and broken and the wallpaper torn off the walls. Sometimes Jimmy forgot there was a world outside of the old Downton Abbey. And there weren’t many survivors housed in it at any given time- people came and went occasionally. Some travelers insisted on only stopping in, looking for someplace safer or where they could more easily reach news. Jimmy thought those people were stupid. And sometimes new people would come to stay. But there were never anywhere near even a hundred people at any given time.

And Jimmy realized there were more zombie corpses piled up around the perimeter of the property than there were living people he’d seen in the last three years at least. He was glad if there were less zombies showed up. He’d be glad if there were no zombies left anywhere. Maybe it was a privilege, to be able to worry about things outside of one’s immediate survival. Jimmy scolded himself sometimes because he secretly felt that it was. And he was always surprised that when he spoke his mind to Thomas about these worries, that Thomas didn’t scold him.

But Jimmy had become concerned that the world outside of Downton was barren. Maybe not totally barren- he was sure there were other havens like theirs where people stayed and even farmed (Downton even had a chicken which laid eggs) and where there were humans who were safe. But maybe there weren’t many of them. And when Jimmy began to think about the world being broken up into little havens like their own with spatterings of people, surrounded by an overwhelming number of corpses, of zombies that didn’t even move anymore but were piled up in ditches and lit on fire… He felt a great sense of dread.

Many nights he awoke in a cold sweat from nightmares, not of walking corpses or being eaten alive as one would expect, but of empty cities full of abandoned, rusting, cars and houses where no one lived anymore and where no one would ever live again. And the vast emptiness of the world felt like it might swallow him up.

It made him feel very hollow and for some weeks, Jimmy was utterly depressed by it. He would barely eat, avoid sleep, and take long walks as far as he could go within the range of the sniper guards. Thomas kept a comfortable distance from him but held his hand when they slept and kissed his shoulder before he blew out the candle every night.

Jimmy didn’t think himself soppy. It didn’t make him want to cry. It just made him anxious. Like he was floating in space. He had a thought one day that if you took all of the remaining surviving humans on the planet and put them all together, how many would there be? Enough to fill a continent? Only enough to fill a small city? If they were all in one city, the rest of the earth would be bare, just animals and corpses, and abandoned buildings.

When he’d had that thought he had to leave the building quite abrupty and vomited outside.

He’d told Thomas of his concerns. After some coaxing. And Thomas hadn’t made fun of him as he was worried he would. But he didn’t think it mattered to Thomas as much. Thomas didn’t like people. To Thomas, Jimmy was the only survivor that mattered.

Jimmy was in a slump about it but he did come around.

When two new people came to the Abbey.

It was an Irish man a bit older than Thomas, who had a working car and a decent supply of gasoline. And he brought with him a little girl, a small and quiet child named Sybbie.

Jimmy hadn’t been there when Thomas had found out. He’d been looking (wistfully) at the vegetable garden and only heard about it later. The Irishman, whose name was Tom, was the husband of an old friend of Thomas’s from the early months of the apocalypse. His friend was named Sybil, a nurse who’d moved in a group with Thomas and about ten others. She’d died over a year ago.

It was the first time Jimmy had seen Thomas cry over a death. And in a way it was a comfort. Thomas had waited until the two of them were alone in their bedroom and at first he’d shut his eyes, even though his lips were trembling and his hands were shaking in his lap. But Jimmy had put his arms around him and soon Thomas was shaking with unrestrained sobs, burying his face into Jimmy’s shoulder. Jimmy felt sorry for him. He also felt relieved that Thomas felt it- the loss of the world- maybe not the same way that Jimmy did, but that he felt it none the less.

The next morning Jimmy hadn’t felt totally better about things. And the morning after that, he still didn’t. He felt closer to Thomas, and that was important. Because Thomas was a great comfort to him and he didn’t think he’d be able to stand life at Downton without him. To be on the run, constantly having your thoughts directed at your own immediate survival was something different. If he’d been alone to languish at Downton, not in a perpetual anxiety but still in a place where he was constantly reminded of what he’d lost, he didn’t think he would’ve been able to cope very long.

A week later he felt better. When he’d gone for his usual listless walk in the garden and seen Thomas kneeled down with little Sybil next to him.

“What’s that?” the little girl pointed (her fingers were so tiny, Jimmy marveled).

“A tomato. Have you ever seen one?” Thomas answered.

The girl shook her head. “We can eat these?” she asked with some apprehension.

“Not right now. They’re not ripe yet. But yes.”

She wrinkled her nose.

“But they’re from the dirt!” she protested. “Food’s supposed to come from cans!”

Jimmy chuckled at this and Thomas turned and noticed him for the first time. His eyes weren’t red rimmed from the crying he’d done anymore and when he smiled he looked at peace- nearly serene. He held Jimmy’s gaze too long but finally tore his eyes away and gave Sybbie a light nudge.

“C’mon. Let’s find your daddy.”

Jimmy walked with one of Sybbie’s hands wrapped around two of his fingers until they’d found Tom who scooped the little girl into his arms, smiling broadly and kissing her face. As he carried her off with promises of playing a game after lunch, Jimmy felt Thomas’s hand loosely grab hold of two of Jimmy’s fingers, consciously of unconsciously mimicking Sybbie’s loose, childish, grip.

“I don’t know how many people there are outside of Downton.” Thomas said. “But the world isn’t going to be like this forever. People have kids, and then those kids have kids, and so on. And the less zombies there are, the easier it’ll be to keep them safe.”

Jimmy nodded and swallowed, taking Thomas’s hand fully in his and squeezing it.

“It’s not the end of the world, Jimmy.” Thomas said. “That already happened. This is the part where things start going right again.”

And Thomas was right.

About eight months into their stay at Downton, something quite extraordinary began to happen. After no contact from the outside world aside from travelers passing through, suddenly a new event was added to their regular schedule: twice a month, a helicopter would fly over the house and drop a care package of food and water, and bandages, and medicine and soap.

And the first time it flew overhead, the care package contained a radio.

The reception was fuzzy but they had nothing if not time and so the radio sat in the center of their makeshift living room (that had couch cushions on the floor instead of couches because the frames had been used for firewood long ago) and was never unattended- always at least one person sat beside it, fiddling with the controls and shaking it gently until they heard voices.

Truth be told, the news wasn’t very exciting. There were a lot of numbers being read that meant nothing to anyone in the Abbey- it seemed there was only one station and it mostly served whatever military had been formed/salvaged that was dropping off care packages and had helicopters. Sometimes the voice on the radio would announce when groups of survivors were found. And that did make Jimmy very happy. Giddy almost.

Three months after having the radio delivered, in the midst of monotone read numbers and reports, the crackled, fuzzy, voice said “and now… a song for all you listeners.”

It was The Beatles.

At first everyone in the living room was silent. In shock. Jimmy played the piano regularly, and everyone took to singing (especially after dipping into the abbey’s prodigious vintage wine cellar) but through the speakers of the radio was rock music, sung by familiar voices. The silence lasted several seconds before there was a unanimous whoop of joy and everyone was soon humming and dancing along. Even old Bates who couldn’t dance with one leg, snapped his fingers in time with the beat, grinning. And his wife took his hands in hers and shimmied their arms back and forth together.

Jimmy’s whoop of joy may have been the loudest of all and he’d nearly leapt into Thomas’s arms. Though he did eventually have to concede his dancing partner to young Sybbie for a few turns.

From then on there was a song everyday.

 If the radio hadn’t brought enough joy on it’s own, the monthly food supply did. Rice and garden grown vegetables were fine in moderation and the occasional edible woodland creature that someone caught was considered a treat but the house had run out of nearly all it’s canned goods before the care packages had started being dropped. And Jimmy had nearly forgotten how good condensed milk and canned pineapple and peanut butter could all taste.

The ‘two meals a day, no second servings’ rule was quickly revoked and there were no more nights when old Bates would loudly announce how he would abstain from eating to ensure that everyone could have enough (Bates never missed an opportunity to play a martyr and Thomas never missed an opportunity roll his eyes at it). The boxes of food the helicopter dropped was more than enough for the small community of people living at Downton.

Sybbie still had to be coaxed to eat fresh vegetables- Jimmy couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be born into a post apocalyptic world but he supposed there’d be a new generation that had spent their young years not knowing what fresh food was or what school or television was. Her father, Tom, was slowly trying to teach her to read and write at age five. They’d never had time to do it before. She was very excellent at hide and seek, though- a game which she and her daddy had played nearly every day while hunched behind rocks or shrubs, trying not to attract the attention of wandering undead.

Otherwise meal time had become a rather lively event- people chatted about what they’d heard on the radio, and as the number of zombies wandering the periphary slowly dropped to zero, occasionally search parties would go for a day through the woods and come back with news. There was never anything too substantial but any novel information was discussed and picked apart at great lengths as a means to pass the time.

Daisy, the young girl who had bravely taken on the task of doing the household’s cooking, sometimes even managed to save enough ingredients to make cakes. They weren’t anything like the frosting covered, chocolate syrup dripping confections that were available at any gas station pre-apocalypse but they had cocoa in them and powdered sugar on top and so to someone who hadn’t had a baked good in over two years, they were heaven on earth.

Thomas was unscrupulous about pinching and hoarding anything he could sneak out of the supplies room and now his and Jimmy’s bedroom had a small stockpile of candy and canned goods hidden away.

It was nice- being able to eat when you wanted to and not having to worry about starving the next week.

Most of the weight they’d gained went to balancing out their bodies, filling in where there had been just skin and bones before. On Thomas it showed a little bit. His stomach protruded ever so slightly in a gentle, rounded, curve and when Jimmy wrapped his arms around Thomas he could pinch soft pudge just peeking over his waistband. Thomas was indignant about it when he did, but Jimmy loved it. He loved that Thomas was healthy and that both of them could go to sleep with full stomachs in a safe place. He loved that Thomas’s ribs no longer poked out visibly like they had when they’d first met. He loved that when they snuggled up under the covers at night that Thomas’s body was warm and soft against his. And he certainly wasn’t complaining about the way Thomas’s jeans fit snugly around his arse now.

Thomas denied any allegations that he’d put on weight but he enjoyed the almost worshipful attention Jimmy paid him and the extra softness on his body. Jimmy found it irresistible. He’d seen both of them have to go nights with barely any food and he’d held Thomas close in cold winter months when he could feel his lover’s bones protruding through skin and his stomach was nearly concave. So to be able to see Thomas eating his fill until he had to undo the top button on his jeans and to be able to take him back to his room to massage and kiss his overstuffed belly jutting out slightly from his waistband, Jimmy felt lucky and overjoyed.

The sex was better when it wasn’t all sharp hip bones and ribs grinding against eachother and Jimmy wasn’t going to get sick anytime soon of not hearing eachother’s stomach growl in the middle of the night or in the middle of fucking.

Now if that happened, they had an easy solution in the chocolate they kept hidden in the bedside table that served as a perfect late night snack. Thomas would put a piece of chocolate just between his teeth and hold it there for James to bite and take into his own mouth, kissing him the entire time until there was a sticky sweet mess melted between their lips even in the chilly bedroom.

More than ever they could barely keep their hands off eachother. There wasn’t always much else to do in the house. Thomas liked listening to the radio but unless it was the one song of the day, Jimmy felt impatient sitting next to it listening to a voice saying coded things he didn’t understand. And in the colder months there was no gardening to be done or walks to be had and playing hide and seek with Sybbie could only take up so much of one’s time.

So for many hours they’d stay in bed wrapped up in eachother with the fire lit to keep them warm and a big duvet draped over them. Jimmy liked sex with Thomas more than sex with anyone else he’d ever been with and that list was not a particularly short one.

Thomas was always eager to please Jimmy but he also loved to tease him and bring him to the edge where he was squirming and begging for him. Jimmy loved to beg for Thomas. And he loved the devious smirk that curved Thomas’s mouth when he had Jimmy at his mercy. Thomas’s body, more so than Jimmy’s, was always covered underneath his clothes with a small collection of scratch marks and bite marks and sometimes even light bruises from Jimmy’s over enthusiasm. And he wore the marks of a sucessful night in with great pride.

Autumn came and soon there was a roaring fire in every room of the house and the light from outside the windows was dappled with spots of orange and red reflected from the thick maple trees outside. The air was crisp and carried the smell of dead plants and earth and wood.

The time of year always brought back memories for Jimmy, to when he and Thomas had first met. He didn’t think Thomas was sentimental enough to say it out loud, but he could tell by the way Thomas peeked at him out of the corner of his eye sometimes as they stood outside breathing in the fresh air, that he felt the same way.

“Do you know what I hate more than running out of cigarettes?” Thomas asked, sighing as he threw the now empty pack in the trash bin outside the back door.

“What?”

“Not much.”

Jimmy chuckled and leaned against Thomas so their shoulders were brushing as they stood side by side.

“The helicopter will be coming back soon.” _probably_ , his mind always supplied, pessimisticly. _Probably_ food would come. _Probably_ the house wouldn’t suddenly become overrun by zombies. _Probably_ they’d survive the next few hours. The only _definitely_ Jimmy had in his mind was Thomas Barrow. Would he love him forever? _Definitely_.

He closed his eyes and rested his head on Thomas’s shoulder. He smelled like dead leaves and cigarettes and the slightly musky scent of the black jacket he’d received from the old Abbey’s wardrobe that must’ve been stewing in a thick pile of mothballs for half a century. It was scratchy against his cheek.

The back door slammed open and Jimmy jumped. It was only Daisy. But she was out of breath and flushed.

“Both of you- you have to come quick. The radio-“ she gasped excitedly.

“What about it?” Jimmy said, a tad curtly as he didn’t like to be interrupted or made to flinch at the sounds of opening doors.

“Jus’ come on!” she said, exasperated, and ran back inside.

“What’s with her then? Favorite One Direction song came on the radio for song of the day?” Jimmy muttered and Thomas gave him a small smirk as he turned to go inside.

The entire household was filling the living room when they walked in, all standing in a huddle around the radio. The voice on the other end was nearly drowned by static but the room was so quiet- every person holding their breath- that Jimmy didn’t have to strain to hear.

“…we have endured, as a nation, as a species, what can only be called the greatest tragedy that humanity has had to face. And today it is to my great relief that I can tell you, if you are listening to this broadcast, that Great Britain, along with 30 U.S states, Switzerland, and South Korea on this day have been declared as purged of 98% of their undead population making them official safe zones. For these places, the zombie apocalypse is indeed over.”

Jimmy didn’t breathe. But he heard everyone else let out the breath they’d been holding. Some of them did so with a sob or a whimper of relief or a breathless laugh. His lungs hurt but he couldn’t let go. He looked numbly at Anna Bates having her tears brushed off her face by her husband. And Tom Branson holding his daughter tightly in his arms as if he’d just seen her for the first time in years.

“There is now the challenge of rebuilding, of recovering all that has been lost that can be salvaged. We must work together, as a nation, as a people, as a species… To make this world the world of the living once more.”

Jimmy couldn’t breathe. And then Thomas’s hand brushed against his and suddenly he just could. And the breaths were coming out all at once as if he’d run a very long way and tears were spilling down his face, hot and sticky and salty against his lips. Thomas wrapped his arms around him and squeezed him tightly. It nearly hurt but it felt good.

“Thank god…” Thomas said, his voice muffled as his face was pressed against the top of Jimmy’s head. His voice was broken and muddled with sobs that Jimmy could feel shaking his chest. “We made it.”

Jimmy choked on his own quickening breath, his own tears overflowing making it impossible to see, coating his lips and stuffing up his nose. He felt the weight of the loss. That he would never see the places he’d grown up in the same ever again. That he’d probably never see acquaintances from his old life, that many of the people he’d smiled at on the tube or who’d given him his change at the convenient store or who’d sang Christmas Carols outside his door during the holidays when he was a child- that most of those people would be dead now.

His parents were dead. He’d never see them again. Wouldn’t even be able to visit a grave where they were buried.

But he didn’t feel lost about it anymore. Because Thomas was his home now and even if everyone else was dead and the world was just burnt out, empty cities, Thomas’s arms were the only place that really mattered to Jimmy and he could always feel comfort there. Somehow they’d lived. They’d both lived and they’d found eachother.

Jimmy finally pulled himself away from their embrace and laughed weakly as he ran his thumbs under Thomas’s eyes to brush away the tears.

Thomas smiled at him, ducking his head slightly, and peeked up at him through his bangs. He was still wearing the lovestruck expression he’d had when he first met Jimmy and Jimmy was just a cad trying to steal his food supplies in the middle of the woods, even after the years gone by. Jimmy kissed him. Slowly and gently.

“Guess it all turned out alright, didn’t it?” he said quietly, enjoying the breath shared between their mouths as they stood close enough to warm eachother.

“Yeah. Zombie apocalypse? Piece of cake really.” Thomas chuckled.

“Mm. They’ve made quite a fuss about it, haven’t they?”

“All’s well that ends well.”

There was a loud pop and they turned to see everyone cheering as Rose opened a fizzy bottle of champagne and Bates loading a few boxes of wine and different liquors into the room.

“I think this should end with a bottle of nicked white wine in our bedroom with absolutely no clothes.” Jimmy suggested.

“Ah, the sending off that the zombies deserve.” Thomas agreed.

“I think so. Rather respectful.” Jimmy nodded.

“Well we’ll have a moment of silence and all when we get upstairs.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep silent for _too_ long though.” Jimmy smirked, “Especially if you’re planning to do to me tonight what I _think_ you’re planning to do to me.”

Thomas grinned at this and twined Jimmy’s fingers in his before they rejoined the crowd.

**Author's Note:**

> There were a lot of scenes that I wanted to include in this fic but didn't or cut out because they just didn't fit in well including one where Thomas has a scar on his hand because he was traveling with a group and tried to steal from them so they stabbed him through the hand to pin him to the ground and tried to use him as zombie bait but he escaped. 
> 
> I had an idea that I didn't use that homosexuality had become very taboo again in the post apocalyptic world because humanity's ranks were so diminished and since homosexual sex is non-reproductive it was seen as a sin against a humanity because it wasn't aiding in repopulating the planet....
> 
> umm what else... I edited this fic quite a lot which sort of shows how anxious I was about it, I'm not sure I'm quite a good enough writer to do fics of this length haha but anyway fuck it it was some good hearted Halloween fun so I hope people enjoyed...


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